SI2-SSI: CyberGIS Software Integration for Sustained Geospatial Innovation

地理信息系统(GIS)最初由地理学家在20世纪60年代中期开发，自那时以来蓬勃发展。在可预见的未来，地理信息系统软件将继续发挥重要作用，突破众多领域的科学挑战，改进具有广泛社会影响的决策实践。然而，履行这些作用越来越依赖于处理超大型时空数据集和复杂分析软件的能力，这些数据集和复杂分析软件基于网络基础设施实现的综合计算和空间思维，而传统的基于地理信息系统的软件方法没有提供这些能力。该项目将把网络地理信息系统建立为一个全新的软件框架，包括网络基础设施、地理信息系统和空间分析/建模能力的无缝集成。具体地说，该项目将：1)通过参与式方法让多学科社区参与不断发展的CyberGIS软件需求；2)基于社区驱动和开源战略，整合和维持一组可组合、可互操作、可管理和可重复使用的核心CyberGIS软件元素；3)通过利用数据和分析操作的空间特征，实现前所未有的地理空间知识发现能力，增强高性能和可伸缩的CyberGIS；4)增强在线地理空间问题解决环境，允许众多用户对CyberGIS软件的贡献、共享和学习，从而促进跨多个学科的教育、推广和培训计划的发展；5)通过与国家和国际网络基础设施连接，部署和测试CyberGIS软件，以实现对大规模地理空间问题、网络基础设施资源和用户社区的可扩展性；以及6)通过领域科学应用和充满活力的伙伴关系，评估和改进CyberGIS框架，以更好地了解人-自然耦合系统的复杂性。CyberGIS软件框架将改变目前的地理信息系统和相关空间分析/建模软件的范式，创建可扩展和可持续的软件生态系统，同时在理解人-自然耦合系统方面取得突破性的科学进步，否则是不可能的。例如，这些进展将极大地促进对备灾和应对以及全球气候变化影响的理解。这一框架将促进高性能和协作性的地理空间问题的解决，并在与地理信息系统有关的用户群体为研究和教育目的广泛参与的基础上，成为国际网络基础设施互操作性的关键驱动力。该项目将与环境系统研究所建立产业合作伙伴关系，与能源部橡树岭国家实验室和美国地质调查局国家地图项目合作，与澳大利亚、中国和英国的几个机构建立国际合作伙伴关系，有效地将惠及国家和社会。

Originally developed by geographers in the mid-1960s, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have flourished since that time. In the foreseeable future, GIS software will continue to play essential roles for breaking through scientific challenges in numerous fields and improving decision-making practices with broad societal impacts. However, fulfilling such roles is increasingly dependent on the ability to handle very large spatiotemporal data sets and complex analysis software based on synthesizing computational and spatial thinking enabled by cyberinfrastructure, which conventional GIS-based software approaches do not provide. This project will establish CyberGIS as a fundamentally new software framework comprising a seamless integration of cyberinfrastructure, GIS, and spatial analysis/modeling capabilities. Specifically, the project will: 1) engage a multidisciplinary community through a participatory approach in evolving CyberGIS software requirements; 2) integrate and sustain a core set of composable, interoperable, manageable, and reusable CyberGIS software elements based on community-driven and open source strategies; 3) empower high-performance and scalable CyberGIS by exploiting spatial characteristics of data and analytical operations for achieving unprecedented capabilities for geospatial knowledge discovery; 4) enhance an online geospatial problem solving environment to allow for the contribution, sharing, and learning of CyberGIS software by numerous users, which fosters the development of education, outreach, and training programs crosscutting multiple disciplines; 5) deploy and test CyberGIS software by linking with national and international cyberinfrastructure to achieve scalability to significant sizes of geospatial problems, cyberinfrastructure resources, and user communities; and 6) evaluate and improve the CyberGIS framework through domain science applications and vibrant partnerships to gain better understanding of the complexity of coupled human-natural systems.The CyberGIS software framework will shift the current paradigm of GIS and associated spatial analysis/modeling software to create scalable and sustainable software ecosystems while achieving groundbreaking scientific advances in understanding coupled human-natural systems that would be impossible otherwise. These advances will, for example, dramatically advance the understanding of disaster preparedness and response and impacts of global climate change. This framework will empower high-performance and collaborative geospatial problem solving and serve as a key driver for the interoperability of international cyberinfrastructure based on broad engagement of user communities related to GIS for both research and education purposes. The project will establish an industrial partnership with the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), collaborations with the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Map Project, and international partnerships with several institutions in Australia, China, and the United Kingdom to effectively extend the benefits to the nation and society in significant ways.